which he resumed his place at the head of
the fleet.

[Illustration: The "Queen Mary," sister ship of the "Lion" and the
"Princess Royal" and capable of a speed of 28-1/2 knots an hour. The
modern British battle cruiser was sunk about half an hour after the
battle was fully joined.]

Jellicoe, seventy miles to the northward with the main fighting force,
received word about three o'clock that the scouting force was in
contact with the enemy, and started at once to effect a junction with
Beatty. He may well have wished at that moment that his forces were
separated somewhat less widely. Under his immediate command he had
three squadrons of the latest and most powerful fighting ships in the
world, twenty-five in all, including his own flagship, the _Iron
Duke_. His squadrons were led by three of the youngest and most
efficient vice admirals in the service, Sir Cecil Burney, Sir Thomas
Jerram, and Sir Doveton Sturdee (Plate V). With him also were Rear
Admirals Hood and Arbuthnot, the former commanding three of the
earlier battle cruisers, _Invincible_, _Inflexible_, and
_Indomitable_, the latter commanding four armored cruisers, of which
we shall hear more hereafter.

[Illustration: PLATE III. Map of Running Fight to Northward. 4:40 to
6:00 P.M.]

A majority of the battleships were capable of a speed of 21 to 22
knots, but it is improbable that the force, as a whole, could do
better than 20 knots. Hood, with his "Invincibles," was capable of
from 27 to 28 knots, and Jellicoe appears to have sent him on ahead to
reenforce Beatty at the earliest possible moment, while following
himself at a speed which, he says, strained the older ships of his
force to the utmost. The formation of the fleet was probably somewhat
like that shown at A, Plate V, which doubtless passed into B before
fighting range was reached.

Of the southward sweep of this great armada, the most tremendous
fighting force the world has ever seen on sea or land, we have no
record. They started. They arrived. Of the hours that intervened no
word has been said. Yet it is not difficult to picture something of
the dramatic tenseness of the race. The admirals, their staffs, the
captains of the individual ships, all were on the bridges, and there
remained not only through the race to reach the battle area, but
through all the fighting after they had closed with the enemy. The
carefully worked-out plans for directing everything from the shelter
of the conning to